Medium Optimization for the Production of Probiotic Lactobacillus acidophilus A12 Using Response Surface Methodology

Lactobacillus acidophilus A12 was isolated from chicken feces for use as an immunostimulating livestock probiotic. The purpose of this study was to optimize the production of L. acidophilus A12 using response surface methodology (RSM). Initially, the influence of growth medium was studied in terms of carbon sources (glucose, fructose, lactose, glycerol, sucrose, ethanol, and mannitol), nitrogen sources (beef extract, yeast extract, malt extract, and tryptone), and inorganic salts (CaCl2, MgSO4, KH2PO4, (NH4)2SO4, FeSO4, and NaCl). Through one factor-at-a time experiment, lactose, yeast extract, and CaCl2 were determined to be the best sources of carbon, nitrogen, and inorganic salt, respectively. The optimum composition was found to be 17.7 g/L lactose, 18.6 g/L yeast extract, and 0.9 g/L CaCl2. Under these conditions, a maximum cell density of 9.33 Log CFU/mL was produced, similar to the predicted value.